


Of Purity and Chaos

by memeshxdow



Series: Purity Heart's Champion AU [1]
Category: Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, Super Mario & Related Fandoms, Super Paper Mario (Game)
Genre: (also there is more badly done language stuff), (and i can't think of anyone else for characters rn so I guess you'll see 'em as they come), (so anyways i've got an honorary beta reader that is now goin by beanlets on tungle), (there's also HUGE spoilers for both spm and ttyd here so I'd watch for those), (they're the one who made the fanart i linked on Mercy), AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Purity Heart's Champion AU, Rewrite of Canon Events, Shitty Google Translated Bits, Super Paper Mario Spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 11:43:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15862947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/memeshxdow/pseuds/memeshxdow
Summary: When a mysterious book he is carrying, as well as his companion Nastasia, is taken from him in an attack, the amnesiac Count Bleck is soon dragged into a conflict that will determine the fate of the worlds, and he must team up with the likes of Mario and a Pixl called Tippi in order to stop the Void, a terrible disaster capable of erasing quite literally everything in existence.The key to stopping the destruction lies in Bleck's lost memories, as well as the book he's had since being found, the Dark Prognosticus-- and it is now in his hands to help Mario as well as three other, unknown fortold heroes to gather the Pure Hearts, the only things capable of stopping the Chaos Heart.(Part two of the Purity Heart's Champion AU, chronologically the first in the series. Updates at least once on weekends, but will depend. This contains a metric ton of spoilers for Super Paper Mario as well as some from The Thousand-Year-Door, so it's recommended to play those games before reading this!)





	1. Prologue -- The Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> { hello hello! Welcome to the second major fanfic project I am taking on, my big rewrite of Super Paper Mario! Originally this was supposed to be the first in the Purity Heart's Champion AU to be posted, but well, I had a really awful first draft, so I went with OBaDS (Of Beans and Dark Stars) instead. 
> 
> Recently, though, I decided to try this project again, so here it is! Like OBaDS, I'll try to update this on weekends, usually on a Saturday (while OBaDS updates on Sundays or whenever I can). Most likely though, it'll be a somewhat slow update schedule for this one, like with OBaDS. Hopefully you guys don't mind that. 
> 
> Anyways, there may be slight changes from the Tumblr version from this one once I update here, that's a given. So, with that, enjoy the fic!~ }

It was an average night in Rogueport, mostly quiet in the dirtied streets as many of the city’s inhabitants slept peacefully. Three blobs of shadow, seemingly random, slunk from shadow to shadow of each building, the normal, nonmoving shadows produced by a strangely crisp, clear moonlit night.

These shadows moved to an area outside of town, the garbage dump area, to be more precise. The three shadows, now away from the normal buildings of the seaport, came up out of the ground, one wearing a robe while the other two, one cutely plump one with pink curly hair and a red-striped hat, and the other muscular, more overweight one with yellow puffy hair and a yellow hat, each sighing in relief.

The one with a robe, who lifted her hood to reveal stringy purple hair and a blue-striped hat, put her somewhat shadowy hands on her hips and spoke in a haughty, old and prideful voice. “Alrighty, my uglies, we have to find something interesting soon.. Hopefully pretty, like a necklace.. The junk I’m selling interests nobody, not even that stupid Pi'illo Bat we got from Pi'illo Island years ago!”

The pink-haired shadowy being gave a frown, putting her hand near her lips. “U-uhm.. Beldam, aren’t w-we supposed to be quieter..?” she asked in a very quiet and stuttery voice, looking around. “What if someone s-still hears us?”

“Shut up, _girl_.. We’re not going to encounter anyone here. Maybe except that Beanish kid that’s been visiting here for a week, but I’m okay with him, he’s an inventor and a fugitive. If anyone is gonna be here at 3am in the morning, it’ll be him. Or not, since he’s like what, 11..??” Beldam snapped back in a hiss, making the pink-haired one flinch, and her apparent sister only stated **“Guh.”** Beldam then backed up near what seemed to be a not too deep chasm, but she didn’t seem to notice, considering her back was turned to it.

“My point is, Vivian, nobody is going to be stupid enough to– _Agh, fu–!_ ” Right then, Beldam stepped near the chasm, and although the bottom of her was technically tethered to the earth and thus unable to trip, the rest of her body seemed to careen into the chasm in a painful manner, causing her to yelp loudly and then crash into something hard, making Vivian and her sister wince.

Vivian cautiously peeked down, gasping upon seeing a huge chunk of ice that was miraculously untouched by Beldam’s fall.. Although she was far more concerned with her downed eldest sister. “A-ah! Beldam, do you need help..?”

Beldam, shaking her head to clear it, groaned but just tilted her head before looking at what she’d landed on in curiosity and also some irritation in the shadow that obscured where her eyes would be. The huge ice chunk was definitely a product of cryokinesis, something that was up her alley, but she could tell it was way stronger than hers.. Almost as if whoever had done the spell had been pretty much born with godly amounts of it. Scrunching her face a bit, the Shadow Siren put the side of her head close to the ice, with her lavender-colored hair slipping out from under her hat as she sharply knocked on the ice, listening as carefully as possible.

It made a hollow sound, to her shock, and she gestured at the other two with a very determined look in her expression (for she had no eyes that were visible to convey this otherwise). “Hey! Marylin, Vivian! Get down here, I think there’s something in the ice! It sounds… _hollow!_ ”

**“Guh?”** Marylin, the biggest in terms of actual height of the tree, gently picked up Vivian and slinked on down to the ice chunk, placing Vivian next to it before proceeding to stare at it with the other two in wonder and confusion.

“S-something inside this?” Vivian inquired, leaning herself a bit to examine the ice closer. “Maybe a Crystal Star is in there.. that’d sure make _our_ job easy..”

Beldam grinned at the youngest of the shadow-magic-based trio of siblings, patting her on the shoulder before pushing the small shadow woman nearest the ice. “Exactly! So, try melting this as carefully as you can for me, Vivian~. Try from the top first. Maybe with the size of this, there’s likely a chest with the star in it.. Or maybe a pure maiden..”

Vivian nodded as she pushed some of her curled hair out of her face, lighting her gloved hands within small orange flames before touching the reflective ice with the gentlest of taps. The ice did indeed melt as intended, but instead of a chest or anything vaguely _resembling_ what they wanted, a cloth hat completely covered in frost (an expensive-looking one, Beldam noted) was uncovered, sopping wet now with melted ice.

“H-huh..?! Vivian, melt this thing _faster!_ Don’t be a slow-ass about it!” Beldam ordered, grasping onto Vivian’s arms as the Shadow Siren’s hands flared in panic with more flames. Rapidly the ice melted around their tendril-like bodies, and as Beldam had realized in some horror, what was revealed was.. _a person..?_

Off the bat, the three very shocked shadow beings saw that the being, without legs to call his own, and no actual arms either aside from disembodied gloves, was the one encased in the ice, wearing clearly expensive clothes and a tophat, although all of it was disheveled and he looked to have been pretty much cryogenically frozen, for he was fast asleep. Carefully, Beldam crouched near him, first pushing the hat up on the strange being’s face and then placing a hand on his barely-moving chest, feeling a weakened but very obvious magical signature.

After a few moments of silence from her, she slinked away from the man, her voice unusually soft, quiet and very shocked as she reported her small findings aloud to the two worried and confused Shadow Sirens beside her.

“…Beldam?” Vivian asked, tilting her head and slumping forward slightly. “What’s wrong? Did I melt him too fast..?”

“No, you melted him fine, dear,” Beldam said slowly, “It’s just.. He’s a **_Tribesman of Darkness_**.. Stars above, I thought they’d _all_ perished by now..” Beldam said, leaning over the unconscious man and examining him a second time to better cement the magic signature she was getting. “I sense dark magic.. Something else, something… So much like the Shadow Queen.. It _isn’t_ her, though. Maybe if we get him out of this hole, we could see about finding out..

Hm, the _problem_ is, the ice magic that trapped him was strong enough that if we try and move him now, it’d probably cause some form of damage to his body. If we’re going to potentially get any information on this guy, he has to be in the best condition we can put him in..”

Beldam sighed, while Marylin once again only hummed a “Guh..” before looking towards the mysterious being. 

“Alright, Vivian, you’d best watch over him for the night. He should be thawed almost completely out by sunrise, so it’ll be safe to try and get him out. Marylin, you are going to carry him out. I’ll look for another cloak so me and Marylin can get him to the inn. Got it, you two?”

The other Shadow Sirens nodded towards Beldam after she spoke, and Vivian, whose powers had calmed down now, carefully melted the extra ice surrounding the odd man before she sat down, carefully gazing upon him. The pink-haired shadow being heard her sisters go out of the small chasm with small noises as they went to search for things (mainly, things to carry the strange man they’d found, she figured), so she decided to take in as much of the person’s appearance as possible while the other two were busy. Again, Vivian went and knelt down, her tassel of shadow sinking slightly to allow her somewhat chubby self to lean closer to the Tribesman.

The limbless man seemed to have orange eyes and a mouth, for his closed eyes and mouth had the color that reminded her somehow of a nice, warm fire, despite how cold he was from defrosting. His outfit was all a warm color aside from the inside of the cloak, which reminded Vivian of the night sky above her head currently, and the gradient on the outside of his cloak, which resembled a sunset’s colors. There was rubies on his hat and the buckle for his cloak/collar, and the most interesting thing she saw was an odd necklace around the man’s neck.

It was a hairclip with a chain looped through part of it, and it looked to be a butterfly but more just the lines of one, and it was colored much like a rainbow. It was absolutely beautiful, and it made Vivian wonder if someone that was once so important to this mystery person gave it to him. Before she could properly look at the necklace, though, her arm bumped against the damp hat, knocking it off of the poor man’s head before noticing some kind of object that was stuffed in his hat.

In curiosity, Vivian carefully heaved the thing out of the hat, which turned out to be some kind of book with a strangely familiar cover, which had a blue gem and a lot of red/purple coloration. The main design was the blue gem, surrounded by four metal spheres and the diamond-like design in a gradient of red and purple. Something about it unsettled her, though, her gloved fingers carefully tracing some hidden letters. She squinted under her tuft of cotton-candy pink hair and could barely make out the words “Dark Prognosticus” on the spine of the book, the ancient language familiar to her but still so…

Vivian just didn’t get why such a small, seemingly harmless book gave off such a strange vibe.. _And why did this Tribesman of Darkness happen to have such a strange book? What had happened to him..?_ So many questions ran through the Shadow Siren’s mind, but the pryokinetic decided not to think on it, and hurriedly but carefully put the book back in the hat, then back on the unconscious being’s head, shaking but managing not to drop anything or fall over.

She then drew back from him and leaned against the dirt and rocks surrounding her and the puddle of melted ice, staring up at the night sky and giving a deep sigh. Although she was worried about the mysterious man, there was more important things that she was very soon to play a part in, and that was the Thousand-Year Door, the daunting entrance where the Shadow Queen lay in wait for the return of herself and her sisters…

As dumb as the idea sounded, it was drawing close to the thousandth year of the ancient spell that the Four Heroes had placed upon the door, and it so happened the group the Sirens now worked with planned to release that terrible force that was the Shadow Queen..

—

_Today… I will tell you about the story of the lost book of prophecies._

_This book, it was a strange tome was filled with the words of future events, stories yet to pass through time.. Many a tale of which **your** eyes will later see.. _

_Being what it was, many beings across many worlds, and even other universes entirely, craved this book, wishing to catch a glimpse of their futures through its words. But no person, after a single glance at this tome of prophesies, never truly gained happiness.._

_The reason? What was written was many frightful secrets never meant for people’s eyes.. A book so dangerous was given the name of the Dark Prognosticus, and was sealed away for good. So much ruin did it cause, that the worlds almost fell to its secrets… It had almost even wrought permanent destruction of those who promised to seal it.._

_This tale I tell now.. It is the story of that book’s last owner. It is a tale of love and sacrifice… But most importantly.. It is a tale of the rise of the Purity Heart’s Champion.._


	2. Prologue -- The Jester Appears

Goombella took a deep breath as she disembarked the ferry from the Darklands that had brought her there, telekinetically floating some Coins to the ferryman (another Goomba, but with a sailor’s hat, who hopped slightly in thanks for her fee money) before hopping off the ship and stretching her only limbs, her boot-clad feet, breathing in the sea-scented air with her eyes closed before opening her dark brown hues with a grin. 

“Phew.. Finals are almost over! I’ve got just the archeology one next week and I’ll be done with another year of college! I just hope those X-Naut creeps are gone for good still..” the peach-pink Goomba sighed, before waddling off into town with a spring in her steps. It was still as yucky as she remembered, although it wasn’t as bad now as it had been two years ago, at least the town looked way cleaner everywhere around her, and not nearly as many shady people were around to leer at visitors.

Thanks to Mario’s huge help with the Trouble Center, the Pianta Syndicate had begun to pitch in to improve all the town by giving money to the Rogueport Restoration crew who were in charge of most of the place. Crime had lowered somewhat, so she happily went over to the east part of town to go see Professor Frankly to tell him about her finals and ask for some advice, as usual for her now that the place was safer..

Or, well, the blonde-haired Goomba _would’ve_ gone to Frankly’s, had she not ran headfirst into whom she assumed was a short woman, falling flat on her back and waggling her feet around. “O-ouch! Dammit, sorry, I wasn’t looking, like, at all..” she groaned in apology, her expression turning regretful as she spoke with embarrassment.

But once she managed to sit herself back up as she always did when having fallen, she saw the other, a blue-haired woman with glasses and a dress skirt and shirt, apparently. Her hands were kinda nubby aside from thumbs, but she had hair that was magenta, making her think of Vivian for some reason.. although, unlike Vivian, the lady wasn’t a good shade of purple, nor did she hide her eyes as Vivian did. “U-uh… Are you okay, ma'am?” Goombella questioned, feeling still a touch of embarrassment as she sat there like an idiot, staring at the other woman until she responded. 

The magenta-haired woman brushed her bangs out of her face after a moment, going a shade of orange before chuckling and talking in a voice Goombella could only think of as one that reminded her of Flurrie’s, just less dramatic and more… Secretary-like. “I’m okay. Thanks for asking, though.” The woman smiled slightly, before bowing her head towards the Goomba near her white boots. “My name is Nastasia. You?”

“U-uhm, _Goombella_ , from Goom University back in the Koopa Kingdom, ahaha.” Goombella stood up, grinning dorkily at the other lady, with her fangs very clearly showing before she curiously pointed out Nastasia’s presence in a partly sarcastic way. “Sooo… What’re _you_ doing in a totally half-gross place like this, anyway? I’m here to see Professor Frankly, my biggest mentor!”

Nastasia blinked behind her glasses, pushing them up before giving a smaller, shy, and somewhat serious expression. “Um, I’m here with a friend on business. He’s inside the inn right now, resting until the next ferry to Toad Town shows up. We’re looking to travel to the Mushroom Kingdom from here to see if we can’t talk to Doctor Toadley.

… _Actually_ , I’d rather we discuss this inside, ‘kay?” Nastasia added, scratching at the back of her head before walking to the inn door and opening it for Goombella, still holding her clipboard impeccably, as if she were a CEO’s secretary her whole life, but with an air of politeness and kindness Goombella felt she appreciated greatly as she waddled towards the magenta-haired secretary casually.

“Whoa…” Goombella commented, following Nastasia as they walked into the pub section of the inn. “What do ya need Toadley for? He’s, like, totally ultra-weird.. But _effective_..?”

“How to explain this…” the magenta-haired secretary-like woman murmured, seating herself at a table and motioning for Goombella to do the same, once again with a polite, somewhat orderly manner. “You see.. My friend lost his memories before we met. We met here in Rogueport, and he helped me out of a bad situation two years ago, so I agreed to stick with him and help him regain his memories. You get me, right?”

The pink Goomba nodded, hopping up onto the stool as best as she could to continue listening to her new acquaintance. She used her telekinesis, a strangely natural Goomba thing, to put her bag on the edge of the stool, her dark brown eyes looking to Nastasia with every single bit of her attention focused on the magenta-haired woman.

“..So, we have been trying to find anyone who could help. So far, we’ve found nobody that could help us.. Mostly because my friend, who goes by Count Bleck for now, has nobody anywhere who seems to know him aside from me and the Shadow Sirens, who rescued him two years ago.”

Goombella raised a fuzzy blonde eyebrow, biting her lip before speaking in a skeptical voice. “Weird.. I so do _not_ remember Vivian mentioning some ‘Count Bleck’ dude when we last met for a coffee visit back home.. Or ever, really.. Maybe she forgot..?”

“Hmm, I suppose she decided not to mention it when she joined up with the man in red…

Anyways.. Well, she and her sisters found him in a block of ice in the garbage dump,” Nastasia explained, pushing her orange-rimmed glasses put on her face again, her slim and careful fingers quickly going back to tapping on the table quietly as she spoke. “Vivian _was_ the one to melt him out of it, after all… I was with the Sirens for a time prior to Bleck having been found, but then I joined Count Bleck after they nursed him back to health. We had no luck trying to contact Beldam again as of recent times. and Vivian has been busy with her own endeavors, so we returned here to head to see Toadley.”

Goombella hummed quietly, silently munching on a little snack cake she had taken out of her bag. The taste of chocolate coated her mouth as she thought on her next words, and she kept her silence until she was finished eating, then leaning forward to the best of her ability towards Nastasia. 

“Hm.. Alrighty.. Is there anything else ya need help with, maybe? I do know some places you could try, if you have no luck.. Maybe try Flipside, Merlon’s actual home dimension. You’d have to go see him, but he’s on the east side of town, pretty close to Professor Frankly’s place,” Goombella explained, but before she could continue, they heard the faint sound of cloth going against the wooden stairs, startling the pair but also unknowingly catching the attention of a bystander. 

He made a near inaudible noise and turned his head slightly, just enough to not catch the attention of those who had caught his own attention, listening as the speaker came into the pub area. _“…Hm?”_

“…Flipside?” a male voice asked, a soft-spoken voice usually reserved for someone really shy. The voice’s owner, who had by now floated towards the table meekly, seemed to be the “Count Bleck” Nastasia had spoken of, for he sure looked like a count, with his silken clothing and the monocle he wore on his left eye, and the cane with a blue stone he used to sort of support himself with as he came to the table to an empty seat. “Well, we haven’t tried that place… Flipside.. yet.. You said Merlon could take us?”

Goombella nodded at Count Bleck, turning in her seat as the orange-eyed man floated over to the empty seat across from her, sitting as the Goomba spoke excitedly with a small grin. “Yup! I’ve visited around here long enough to befriend Merlon a bit. He’s a seer here that has a bunch of places all over the Mushroom Kingdom that he lives in.” Goombella then took out her snacks, a pack of little chocolate snack cakes she telekinetically passed to Nastasia and Count Bleck before she continued, while opening a snack cake and popping it into her mouth, talking as she ate.

“He’s, like, got a place in Toad Town, where Toadley lives.. and then he’s got his _actual_ home in Flipside. I’ve been there only once, and that was because I had to go interview him about the Tribe of Ancients being involved in that whole Shadow Queen dealio..” she added, thoughtfully waggling her feet as she spoke, with Count Bleck looking at her with earnest curiosity and Nastasia furiously writing the information down on some kind of cheap clipboard. “And the only way to get to Flipside is either by a special candy cane-looking pipe or if someone, like, directly teleports you there. It’s totally isolated, almost.. That’s cuz it’s kinda special, Merlon said.”

Count Bleck nodded respectfully at Goombella to indicate he’d listened, gaining a look of careful focus in his warm orange eyes as he mentally took the information in, Nastasia jotting it down on the clipboard beside the other two in an equally respectful silence. “I see.. So do you think he may be of help to me about something else, too? Not just my memories?”

Goombella made a face, raising her eyebrows at the Tribesman of Darkness sitting across from her in suspicion. “Uh. Well. What _“something else”_? It’s not illegal, is it? Cuz Flipside is totally not the place for that, Rogueport is. …Even then, bud, I’ve been with Mario before, and neither of us–“

"No, I assure you, it’s not _illegal_!” Count Bleck sputtered in a panicky manner, his facial expression becoming alarmed as he put his disembodied floating gloves up in defense, his odd mouth forming a frown. “It’s just.. Well, you said he was a seer.. Since I’ve been not turned into a Bleckcicle–” 

At that, Nastasia winced at the bad pun, raising an eyebrow at Bleck with a “What in the fuck” look in her expression while Bleck spoke.

“–I’ve had a strange book in my possession that I found hidden in my hat.. I read some of it, and.. I don’t understand what I saw in there. I don’t exactly recognize the language, and yet I feel really compelled to keep this book safe.. Almost as if it’s something that is a key to my memories..”

As he spoke, Count Bleck pulled a dark-colored book with a diamond design and a blue gem in its middle out from his massive tophat, placing it on the table for Goombella to examine. While the count spoke, Goombella finished off her snack cake and stared at it with her eyebrow raised at it, gaining some kind of foreboding feeling as she looked into the sapphire stone, almost the same kind of foreboding feeling she’d felt when the Palace of Shadows had opened after the seal of the Thousand-Year Door had broken.

“All I know about it is that Beldam had said she knew what the book was called.. The Dark Prognosticus. She’s apparently only heard of the book through word of mouth around Rogueport, so she doesn’t know anything else.. I do wonder why it’s so… _Infamous._.

I know Vivian was the first to see it, she asked me about it when I’d first been found.. Like I said, though, I didn’t get much information about it then, and I haven’t found much now..”

Goombella made her best impression of a shrug with her body, and Bleck slipped the book back in his hat, sighing before opening his snack cake and gobbling it down hungrily in a single bite. Nastasia gave a small laugh, probably as if to go “Oh, Count Bleck..” as she snacked on her own snack quietly, listening to the conversation.

Out of the young woman’s side vision, though, she now saw someone next to her, sitting at a nearby table, with some kind of strange clothing– jester’s clothes, colored black, yellow and purple. He seemed busy reading an awful book and eating a Beanish dish of some kind, seemingly minding his own business, but Nastasia felt… _watched_ , almost as if the jester was eavesdropping so rudely, intently and carefully.

He’d even been looking towards the trio when the Prognosticus was in view, and for a split second she’d see a black-and-white mask he was wearing.. But to keep her composure, she took a deep breath when he turned his head back around to resume eating, telling herself that she was getting too worried again. Just in time, Nastasia tuned back into the conversation, hearing Goombella give her answer on Bleck’s earlier question after she passed Bleck another snack cake.

“I dunno, Count. Maybe there’s some curse on it or something. I know I’ve never heard about it.. Your best bet is probably Merlon, then. He has some book called the Light Prognosticus, so maybe he could tell you what the Dark one’s for, yanno?

His place is on the east bit of town, and he’s got a Shine Sprite above his door, cuz you can trade those for little Partner powerups and whatnot if you want.”

“Hmm..” Count Bleck mused, tapping slightly on his hat with one hand while holding onto his cane with his free hand. “I guess we can find out. I already paid the innkeeper upstairs, so we can go ahead and see Merlon, Nastasia. Hopefully he won’t mind..”

Nastasia nodded, writing more stuff on the clipboard and trying internally not to worry that someone might’ve eavesdropped on such sensitive topics, before hopping down from her seat and tugging on Count Bleck’s cloak to get him going as he grabbed another of Goombella’s snack cakes (piled on the table) awkwardly for the road. “That’s fine, Count. You take care now, Goombella, ‘k? Thanks for the directions, and the food, eheh.”

Goombella grinned at the two and waved a foot at the pair as they headed out the door of the inn’s pub area. “See ya! Hope you get your memories back, Count!”

“I will,” Bleck reassured with his own smile, waving with his disembodied hand as he and his faithful companion exited the place.

Goombella decided to herself quietly that she was going to finish off her snack cakes before heading to Frankly’s, but as she was about to put another in her mouth, she hear the sound of a stool moving before yelping as she saw someone else where Bleck had been sitting. “Agh! Creep alert,” she grumbled, glaring at the jester that now sat in front of her.

“Relax. I won’t hurt you, for I’m as harmless as grass after a fresh rainstorm,” the jester said, his half-black, half-white (really light lavender?) mask’s mouth moving and smiling when he spoke. His voice seemed kinda creepy, about on par as Francis from photography class (who had finished a year ago and went back to his home of Fort Francis).. “I happened to hear an.. Interesting conversation over here, so I am curious about it.”

“Bug off, _fuckweed_ ,” Goombella said, frowning at him. “That stuff is their business, and I don’t know anymore than they do. Go follow them if you’re so desperate to know. _Leave me alone_ or you better say goodbye to a functioning nose hole, buddy.”

“Hm.. Sorry then, Goombella,” the jester said with a (probably faked) sigh. “I happen to be somewhat knowledgeable of the Dark Prognosticus’s language. The name is Dimentio, pleaser of crowds. I don’t exactly have a permanent residence currently, aside from this inn, until I procure more money..”

Goombella… just _stared_ at Dimentio for a solid five seconds into the eyeholes of the mask, her dark brown hues becoming sharp in an intense stare before she telekinetically tossed a snack cake into his mask while her blond hair frizzed up like an angry Blitty’s fur. “Will you take the hint and **_go_** , Mr. Creepy Jester?” the Goomba spat harshly, her voice seeming to drip with irritation and venom.

Dimentio, still somehow cheerful, let out a _suspiciously_ faked laugh and deposited the free food into his weird poncho cloak before floating out of “his” seat to comply with the annoyed Goomba’s wishes. Goombella noticed then that Dimentio appeared to have a similar structure to Count Bleck, but way smaller, and with legs attached to his torso under the poncho (which he was just wearing a black sweater vest there). Dimentio made some fancy pose as he went back to his previous seat, still smiling at the other cheerfully.

“Alright, consider me gone, dear 'Bella~. Thank you for the food. I do sincerely apologize for me imposing on you..” With that somehow sarcastic-feeling greeting, he grabbed his book and snapped his fingers, making the empty plate he had instantly teleport itself to the counter before he simply opened the door and floated on out while whistling some random tune.

“Weirdo..” Goombella sighed, slumping into her stool and trying to get her mind back to what it had been to before- talking to Frankly of her progress at the college. Still, she couldn’t help but think about Bleck’s predicament and Dimentio’s strange behavior about _that book_..


	3. Signs of Terror

“Hmm...”

The rocking of the boat was all too familiar to the young Bean as it sailed back to the now-familiar haven of the port of Rogueport, his now slightly bigger hot-pink companion Midbus watching the sea lap at the edges of the metallic ferry boat and the seagulls that flew by. 

“..Lord Fawful?” Midbus inquired softly, who was on his tippy toes to get his head up above the railing, his yellow eyes directed at the wistful inventor. 

“..I have fine. I am just having the thinking-on of things,” Fawful responded, his glasses facing the afternoon sun. “Besides, I think I will be needing another journal now that my other one is being full of words that are being Fawful’s ramblings. Maybe the one who I had the buying of my other journal last time will still have the being there..”

“Hmm, maybe,” Midbus responded. “I did hear Rogueport has been cleaning up immensely about their crime rate, so perhaps we’ll need to be a bit more cautious..” 

Fawful chuckled slightly, shaking his head. He happened to have a sun hat, mostly to keep himself from sunburning (well, he figured he could sunburn, but wasn’t sure..), and it flapped slightly in the mild sea breeze as he thought on Midbus’ warning, before patting the hot-pink boar on the head, between the medium-sized horns. 

“Ah, I think we shouldn’t have too much of the worrying, then. I won’t be having the attacking now that I know I am having some potential for magic.. and besides, it has had the being of some years. I don’t think most would have remembering of me right now, especially not so soon after the Queen of Shadows had the existing and then the defeating by that fink-rat that is being Mario.” 

“If you say so, Lord Fawful..” Midbus replied, looking worried for a second before the pair heard the captain yell. “Ahoy! We are about to arrive at Rogueport in ten minutes! For those who are not wanting to continue to the Beanbean Castle Town port, please prepare to disembark now!”

“See? We need to be getting ready, Midbus. Think of it.. We can be visiting the rest of the territory of Rogueport now~.” Fawful gave an endearing smile at Midbus before turning from the sea towards the entrance to where his and Midbus’ things were. “I’ll have the racing of you to our things that are being important~!” 

“Ahaha! You’re on, Lord Fawful!” Midbus said, immediately speeding off on all four legs with his tail wagging, and the young Beanish inventor running behind him, trying to keep his poor hat from falling off his head.

* * *

 

Once off the boat roughly 15 minutes later, having paid the ferry fee and already gotten to the shop for a new journal, Fawful and Midbus were sitting in the middle of town on the steps of the hanging platform of the old days, cheerily eating some food Fawful had brought prior to the trip. ...Well, if canned tuna-and-Mushroom sandwiches counts as a completely valid lunch. 

Fawful was silently drawing in his new journal some plans to renovate the Bean n’ Badge again since he was getting frustrated with the lack of room for Midbus to sleep, drawing in some furniture and some plans to make a pesudo-Dutch oven and some room for a mini-fridge when he began to feel a wonky feeling in the pit of his stomach. His gauntlet was beginning to shine with the colors of yellow and purple, and so he turned his head to look around--

##  _BOOM!_

Fawful stood up quicker from his seat than one could say “I have fury!” at the sound of the sudden explosion from the east side of town, looking to that direction as smoke began to rise right about where Frankly’s place was. A loud yell and then a more feminine scream sounded out right before that, and Fawful found himself starting to walk, then run, to that area of Rogueport, accidentally tossing his lunch and his sun hat into Midbus’ face at the same time. 

As the Beanish inventor ran as fast as his 4-foot-self could allow, he almost ran into a blur of yellow and purple and black and white that came towards him, and he stopped for a moment, as did the other, when they came so close to running right into each other, in front of the inn and many panicked townspeople.

The jester, as it seemed, looked at the young Bean right in the eyes for a moment, and Fawful couldn’t get anything out of his mouth before the jester flew off again, causing the 13-year-old to yell “Don’t have the away-running, fink-rat!” at the other while shaking his ungloved fists.

Various townspeople, who were looking in the direction of Fawful and the stranger, managed to make out the jester’s appearance as he floated above the hanging platform’s rope: a short, floating being wearing a black-and-white mask with a permanent-looking smile, clothing that was yellow and magenta, and the jester had a wriggling bat in one hand and a strange book in the other as his eyes crinkled when he cackled evilly. 

“AHAHAHA! And like a curtain dropping on stage, I will disappear!” the jester yelled, before doing what Fawful could only describe as “flipping” and disappearing before the Piantas and Midbus could grab the invader. In a shaky panic, Fawful continued his run to the east of town, making it to Merlon’s area before finally seeing all the destruction around him. 

Laying in the middle of shattered bricks and smoke, battered and wounded, was some man in white clothes, his eyes (a shade of blue) closed in pain as the rest of him remained mostly still and sprawled out awkwardly as if he were some kind of broken rag doll. A smoking hole in his back was probably where the wound was from such an unusually powerful attack, and Fawful gingerly but quickly crouched in front of the other, examining him before shouting out. “ _I am needing assistance!_ There is being someone who is having unconsciousness and injuries that ache!” 

Goombas, Toads and some Piantas that were the locals of the town soon began to come into the area, watching as Fawful tried to move the person to be in his small grasp. “Uff.. That jester fink-rat...!” 

The door to the Shine Sprite shop opened, and who came out of the wooden door was a short being with a long white beard, and a green Star Point that held his long blue cloak together on his shoulders, his yellow eyes under the hood widened in shock and some hint of surprise and horror as he gazed upon the scene before starting to walk through the crowd as best he could to see what was happening. _“W-what...? Everyone, excuse me please... yes..”_

The crowd murmured fearfully and gathered in somewhat of a circle as a panicking Fawful kept trying to check the injured being for other injuries than the one smoking on his back, and the hooded seer walked over, seeming to wince under his great blue hood at the scene. _“What has happened here? All of you, please calm yourselves..”_

“Didn’t you have the _hearing_ , Merlon?” Fawful asked in exasperation with a tremble within his higher-pitched voice, his face looking somewhat anxious as he trembled, holding the odd man’s hat with one of his hands. “Someone had the attacking of this person with more fury than ten Bowsers! It was being a jester of bad that was having a mask, and he was having the floating.. He was being a sorcerer, sir! A d-dangerous one, that is being right..” 

“..” Merlon remained quiet when he crouched down, leaning over the unconscious being before standing up straight. _“I’d suggest all of you disperse_ **at once** _. If what has occurred is true, then this matter should be left to me alone. If you can, contact Mario and the Mushroom Kingdom for assistance at once. I need to return to Flipside.”_

“..EH?” a Pianta dressed in sunglasses and a suit questioned, with equally confused murmurs rippling through the large crowd, not understanding. 

**“But what about the jester, Merlon? Shouldn’t we try to find him?”** a Toad nervously asked, scratching their head.

“Ey! That _asshole_ took out _4 months of work_ on restoring the road around here! We’ve gotta get him to come back and fix it with his _magic!_ ” another Goomba shouted, and some murmurs of agreement also went through the crowd of people, which now seemed to include Frankly and Goombella, trying to hop above the taller people of both sides of town to see what was happening in their own brand of confusion. 

_“_ **Calm yourselves down!** _I am afraid we cannot pursue the jester from here. I do not know enough of him to personally get him back, so I ask you to contact the Mushroom Kingdom,”_ Merlon commanded, his beard starting to shake angrily when he spoke. _“My advice to you all is to contact Princess Peach of this attack. Now, disperse, please.”_

“...” Most of the crowd reluctantly backed off and went to wherever they had gone earlier, except for Fawful, Goombella, and Frankly, the latter two of which ran forward to Merlon, with Goombella frowning deeply and hopping on her feet nervously as she walked around the injured, unconscious man in the middle of the mini-crater of broken-up bricks. “Oh no! Oh stars, it’s Count Bleck! Is he okay?”

“..Bleck of Countness? Is that being his name?” Fawful questioned, raising an eyebrow at Goombella in confusion, thinking internally that the name was a really strange name for someone to have, even in his worried state. 

“Uh, yeah!” Goombella replied quickly, apparently trying not to get too worried herself, from the deep frown she had and the soft huffs of frustration and guilt. “Man, I should’ve stuck with him and Nastasia.. I told him to go see Merlon a few days ago if he didn’t have luck with Toadley, but I guess the guy that attacked the Count must’ve followed him for sure..” The female Goomba sighed, walking back to where Frankly was and starting to pace somewhat. “Man, it maybe was about that weird book.. It _must’ve_ been..” 

_“..Hmm.. Well, I will need your help to carry Bleck to Flipside, then,”_ Merlon interrupted, his expression turning serious as he looked to the three, crouching near Bleck still. _“Since Fawful saw the culprit, I suppose I will need to speak to the three of you to figure out what exactly happened. Fawful, go get Midbus. Goombella, Frankly, I’d like you to help me pick up Count Bleck and carry him inside for the time being..”_

* * *

 

                                        _\-- One Hour Earlier... --  
_

“..Mm...” 

Peach struggled to wake up, but when she did actually manage to wake up, she found she was holding some kind of flowers in her hands. They were small Piranha Plants, the sort used for romantic occasions.. like weddings... Peach blinked and looked around, trying to clear her blurred vision before noticing where she was. White streamers, pink flowers, and an altar of some kind surrounded her, and she looked across from herself, across from a little basin of sorts. Bowser was there, grinning like a dork to her, and sporting a groom’s white tuxedo. She looked to her left, and saw a weird jester-like being dressed mostly in white, yellow and magenta, smiling at her. 

Peach gasped in shock, gripping her flowers very tightly in her gloved hands as she heard cheers erupt from behind Bowser, clearly from Bowser’s Army. Kammy and Kamek were nearest Bowser in the front of the crowd, Kamek cheerfully creating magical fireworks along with other Magikoopas and Kammy shrugging at Peach as if to say “I don’t know what is happening, either”, and probably over 1,000 Goombas and Koopas joining in on the cheering or greeting her. 

So, naturally, Peach raised her voice as best she could, her expression full of confusion and now having a hint of irritation and impatience. “W-what is going on here?! Tell me right _now!_ ” 

While Bowser was facing his gigantic audience and cheering along with them, someone teleported into the altar area, a young-looking woman with a green, blocky body, blocky pigtails, and a blue-and-teal mermaid tail dress, with coral-like hair pins in her pigtails to complete the look. “Heya, Lord Dimen! The prep for everything else is ready, Count!” 

“Ahahah! Very well, Mimi! Let us begin the ceremony!” Lord Dimen said, raising his silken white gloves into the air. To Peach, it seemed that this Lord Dimen was some kind of officiator, probably a villainous one, and she didn’t really remember coming here herself.. Mimi, the apparent bridesmaid, walked up to Peach as Lord Dimen lowered himself to speak, keeping his hands up and signaling the crowd to quiet down so that they could listen, too. 

“Ahem...” the white-clad jester began, his ever-present smile beaming as he turned to Bowser. “King Bowser Vermillion, ferocious and fearsome monarch of the Koopa Kingdom.. Do you take Peach to be your un-lawfully wedded wife, until your games are over quicker than one who blows out a candle?” 

Bowser, who had by now turned towards Peach and Mimi, raised his arms into the air, his grin fully showing off most of the fangs in his mouth as he bellowed his answer. “BWAH HA HA! Are you kidding, Dimentio? The answer’s HELL YES!” 

Then Lord Dimen turned himself to Peach, keeping his strange grin on his mask’s face, while his eyes remained crinkled cheerfully at the unwilling bride-to-be that stared at him with bugged-out blue eyes and a deep frown. “Now.. Princess Peach Toadstool, the noble princess of the Mushroom Kingdom, pure of heart and morals.. Do you take Bowser to be your un-lawfully wedded husband, until your games are over quicker than the spring breeze of Petalburg?” 

“...” Peach didn’t answer, mostly due to her growing anger and also the comparison to Petalburg, but after a second, the princess’ blue eyes soon narrowed to two thin lines, her mouth becoming a furious scowl and her blonde eyebrows furrowing. “Wait a stars-damned minute, Lord Dimen! I asked _you_ to _explain_ what is happening.. _Do it right now!_ **_WHY AM I HERE?!_** ” she yelled, her voice shrill with her now bolsterous fury as she directed every word to the clearly not legal officiator of the so-called “wedding”. 

Bowser winced slightly at the loud yell from Peach, lowering his arms while his spiked tail drooped to the ground, and Mimi just sighed, shaking her head as if Peach were silly. “Don’t ya get it, Your Majesty~?” Mimi asked, winking at the irate monarch beside her before continuing to speak in a cheery voice. “This is _your_ wedding, silly! You’re _supposed_ to be here! It’s rude to miss your own wedding, after all.. You get to wear a _beautiful_ dress, eat some pretty _tasty_ food, and spend the rest of your life with Bowser! That’s the dream!”

Peach gave a hard blink, becoming confused and raising an eyebrow. “If that’s so.. Then why in the worlds am I marrying _Bowser_ of all people?!”

Bowser gave a hearty chuckle, his voice deep and obviously pretty happy in tone before he explained with a hand on his hip and the other pointing near Peach. “Eh, no gripes from this side of the altar, Dim! I don’t exactly get the details, but Lord Dimen here did a lot of jumping through some hoops to get all this planned!

_Relax_ , Peach. This’ll be _**marvelous**_! We’ll get married, we’ll be in love, and it’ll be really awesome together with the kids! Finally!”

“No.” Peach glared again at Lord Dimen, her eyes seemingly going a hint of purple with pure rage. “I’m sorry, but I refuse to marry you! Besides, who picked out the dress?! It is definitely not my style, I’m afraid!”

Mimi groaned, rolling her eyes at Peach before walking in front of the angered blonde with a shrug. “I picked the dress, genius.

Now, finish the vows, okay? All it really is goes like “I do”! Just two words, Peach, and this’ll be all over with. Like, it’s absolutely more fun if you just cooperate, yeah?” 

“NO!” Peach yelled louder and far more forcefully as she could, not only scaring Bowser but also making Lord Dimen’s smile become an uncertain frown on his magical mask, gritting her teeth and tossing the flower bouquet as hard as she could into Mimi’s face, likely ruining the young woman’s makeup in the process. Peach then picked up the edges of her dress, shaking with fury and some fear as well, while she began to back up towards the stairs of the altar. _“Take me back to my castle immediately, or **I will take my own self back!** ”_

Peach, to her shock, soon was trapped in some kind of glass box before she could successfully leave the area, and she banged against it in a sudden panic, her fists unable to break the solid material at all. “W-what?!” 

“ _Dear_ princess...” Lord Dimen said, his voice now unusually feeling toxic and harsh as he spoke, “I don’t appreciate you being so delightfully rude.. Allow me to repeat this vow once more, and perhaps I won’t end your game here and now if you answer correctly this time.. 

_Do you, Princess Peach Toadstool, take King Bowser Vermillion Koopa to be your husband ‘til your games are over?_ ” 

Peach, staring out from the glass, shakily stood where she was, her hands still pressed against the glass, and she began to try and punch at it again, practically screaming out her words now. _“I SAID NO, YOU AWFUL JESTER! **LET! ME! GO!** ”   
_

“..Hmph... Mimi, perhaps a bit of your own “magic” may be needed to convince her...” Lord Dimen said, backing from the glass box that held the irate Peach inside, still punching the glass and still being unable to break it. “..You sure, Count?” the green-haired young woman asked. 

“E-eh? Why’re you being so damn harsh to her...” Bowser said, looking a little concerned now as he stood awkwardly at his side of the altar area, his orange-red eyes looking deflated. “..Is she mad at me again..?”

Peach heard Bowser’s voice, although more muffled due to what she was trapped in, and between that and Kammy’s concerned look from down the altar, the princess pondered over her decision as Mimi’s head began to spin around like one of those horror movies that scared Luigi so much. She knew she would suffer if she’d say no, but she also didn’t want to go through with it... 

Defeated, the Mushroom Princess, lowered her hands, speaking in a sullen voice. “...Alright, Lord Dimen. **_I do._** ”

The moment the two words ended up leaving the woman’s lips, the ground began to shake around everyone, and Lord Dimen began to hysterically laugh, his laughter just about booming as the earthquake that shook the entire altar room. Bowser’s arms waved as he struggled to keep his balance on his padded feet, yelping every so often. “W-what the actual hell?! Lord Dimen, what the _fuck_ is _THIS?!_ ”

In the crowd of Bowser’s confused and scared army, while the ground continued to shake tremendously, while a silvery glow began to emanate from the altar’s small basin area, Luigi woke up on the ground, shooting up and looking around. “Eh? What in the world-- where’s Big Bro-- huh?? _Perché tutto sta tremando ...? Dove sono..?_ ”

Luigi looked up to the source of the shaking and the insane-sounding laughter that sounded far too close to Fawful’s, squinting with his blue eyes before seeing the glass box on one side of the altar. It disappeared, and out popped an exhausted Princess Peach, looking to be very upset, while on the other side of the altar, Bowser was there trying not to fall over in his suit. Then there was the scary-looking woman and the jester, the latter of which was laughing his head off to the point that he looked a bit winded. 

“I-is that.. Princess Peach over there... _Oh no!_ ” Luigi yelled, shocked at the silvery light coming from the altar and starting to shine even greater, causing the confused crowd to try to cover their eyes. 

What emerged from the altar’s basin looked to be a gigantic silver heart, pulsing with magic and ruin as it began to rise from the altar in its terrible, but somehow mesmerizing, brilliance in front of all who were nearest the altar. Bowser managed to stop almost falling over, but he couldn’t help but shakily try to back away from the thing, growling and whimpering in the same breath in fear of the thing. 

##  _“AHAHAHAHAHA!”_

The jester seemed to wipe tears from his excessive laughter off the edges of his mask’s eyeholes as he rose to a bigger height to speak to the crowd, his voice a crescendo and a pulse of magic all its own. “All thanks to your nasty efforts, Bowser and Peach, your union has birthed something with such a great power I can’t help but laugh in the greatest of triumphs! 

Just as it was foretold in legend.. _Just as that book of all books, the Dark Prognosticus, has predicted.._

**_I, DIMENTIO, PLEASER OF CROWDS, have summoned the Chaos Heart!_** ”

“Woohoo!” Mimi cheered, starting to also grin and cheer at it. “Wow, it looks really beautiful! Kinda reminds me of a big ‘ol diamond!~” 

_“Non lo permetterò!”_ Luigi yelled, jumping up to the altar with one of his Super Jumps, as he pointed a gloved hand at Lord Dimen with glaring blue eyes and sharp blue sparks starting to fly from his fingers. “Back off, you big jerk!”

“..Ahuhuhu~... Who might you be, my mustachioed friend?”

“Oh no, you.. you _dick_! I don’t give my name out to people like you willingly!” the green plumber hissed, balling his fists and waving them at the fake officiator, as if he were challenging the other. Quietly, Bowser chuckled, “Jeez, Luigi, you really need to work on your comebacks..” 

“.. _Just watch_. I’ll _punish_ you for your evil act, with or without my Big Bro!!” Luigi continued, cementing his angered but determined expression while still having his fists up. “HERE I GO!”

“A-ah, if you interrupt this now..” Lord Dimen began, becoming nervous-looking immediately as he prepared to fire off more of his own magic towards the man in green who began to walk forward. _No, the man in green had a name.._ ** _Luigi.._**

“Luigi, _please_ , I am begging you more than a hungry Blitty! Don’t do what I think you’ll do!” 

“Hah!” Luigi said, running forward with the grace of an actual Blitty on the hunt, then leaping as high as he could. With his determined look still on his face and twitching in his dark mustache, he hit Bowser square on the head, knocking over the Koopa onto his tummy, before hitting the Chaos Heart with a sort of soft squishing noise, landing next to a panting, exhausted Peach. 

“D-don’t worry Peach..! I’ve got you,” Luigi said, trying his best to help Peach to her feet as he gingerly picked her up and slung the taller monarch over his shoulder, her head now laying on his soft sweater. “As for you...

E-eh?” 

The Chaos Heart suddenly shone bright enough for everyone to need to cover their eyes, with even Mimi and the minions at the far back of the room having to cover their poor eyes. Once it was over, the Chaos Heart had gone up to the tallest height of the room, near some square platforms of some kind. Lord Dimen teleported there, sighing in relief. “Oh dear.. That could have ended so badly..” 

“Hey, Dimmy?” Mimi asked, now having teleported up to the platform just below the Heart. “What’re we gonna do with those jerks, anyway? They could’ve ruined the Chaos Heart!”

“It’s fine, my dear Mimi~.” Dimentio placed his hand on the Chaos Heart, feeling its heart-like warmth and its harsh coldness at the same time as his white glove pressed into its smooth surface. “We have the Chaos Heart with us now. Like a discarded bagel ruined by old oil.. We don’t need Bowser and Peach any longer. My plan is going the way I need it to be.. 

**_Chaos Heart, the embodiment of the Dark Prophecy! Unleash your power, darkness! Begin your work of destruction, and unleash the VOID! Remain within me, however.. for I need you for another purpose.. an incubator to hide your power ‘til the very ending!_** ”

As he welcomed the Chaos Heart into him, it began to glow again, and its power began to make the room tremble once more, while screams came out and most fell over on their backs or their tummies, fearing for their lives. 

The last thing Luigi would remember as he and Peach tried to hold on, was looking up above the altar through a hole in the pavilion, looking up at the Chaos Heart as it was absorbed into Lord Dimen’s body, his mad laughter filling the huge reception room with a great echo..

##  _“AHAHAHAHAHA!”_


End file.
